The
water-carrier Khalid is there, and some sort of bum from Persia by the outlandish
name of Salman, and to complete the trinity of scum there is the slave Bilal,
the one Mahound freed, an enormous black monster, this one, with a voice
to match his size. (p.101)

Mahound comes to me for revelation, asking me to choose between monotheist
and henotheist alternatives, and I'm just some idiot actor having a […obscenities
removed…] nightmare, what the […obscenities removed…]
do I know, yaar, what to tell you, help. Help. (Gibreel, p.109)

In those years Mahound - or should one say the Archangel Gibreel? -
should one say Al-Lah? - became obsessed by the law. Amid the palm trees
of the oasis Gibreel appeared to the prophet and found himself sprouting
rules, rules, rules, until the faithful could scarcely bear the prospect
of any more revelation, Salman said, rules about every damn thing, if
a man farts let him turn his face to the wind, a rule about which hand
to use for the purpose of cleaning one's behind. It was as if no aspect
of human existence was to be left unregulated, free. The revelation -
the recitation - told the faithful how much to eat, how deeply they should
sleep […crudities removed … ] Gibreel further listed the permitted
and forbidden subjects of conversation, and earmarked the parts of the
body which could not be scratched no matter how unbearably they may itch.
He vetoed the consumption of prawns, those bizarre other-worldly creatures
that no member of the faithful had ever seen, and required animals to
be killed slowly, by bleeding, so that by experiencing their deaths to
the full they might arrive at an understanding of the meaning of their
lives.. (364).